Mell.4873

The highest personal DPS a support can get is 36k Condition Mirage Alacrity, but I don't see this played very often, why? This is a very hard to do with Condition Mirage without more concentration or the traited Signet of Inspiration. The next inline is 33-34k Alacrity Untamed which abuses the lower cooldown trait Fervent Force, this is very hard combo and almost impossible to maintain alacrity. Finally we have 30k with Condition Quickness Harbinger, Berserker and Firebrand, this might be only valid one. Again I ask is it your job to get a high personal DPS or keep boons at 100% duration? Mechanist doesn't even need to be mentioned since its 25k.

Most "pure" damage specs don't appear on website like Snowcrow, etc because they are not used in raids or strikes. I mean I know for a fact that Holosmith can still get above 30k but no one wants this class because Mechanist exists. Virtuoso was once heralded as the selfish DPS that contributes nothing to a group so it was worse than Scourge who could provide at least some barrier. I mean this whole thread speaks of weird problem stemming from the addition of a few support specs that can get high personal DPS numbers.

Yeah my point exactly, very few people can commit more that two/three mains to muscle memory. I mean people laughed when I said it took me a full year to learn Mirage and then another year to learn Chrono (on and off playing)

Long post but I get the idea, honestly I think the game in its current state is still better than before EoD since Scourge and Firebrand dominated most end game content in terms of damage and support. The only room was Alacrity which had a tied pick with Mirage or Renegade. Anything is and improvment on that and I hope they keep improving other specs.

Yeah I can agree with all this.

That sounds like what we currently have, there are no unique class boons and every class can provide one of the two main boons (Quickness or Alacrity) some professions can even provide both.

Wouldn't removing boons make every profession the same, like what we had at launch. I mean one of the reasons Warrior were so dominant at launch is because they had the best survivability. Honestly what they need is more trinity that way its more the team cohesion that is a factor in clearing content. I mean the only reason people like HB over other supports is because they have most access to unique boons. If everyone can contribute it would diminish the need to have 1-2 HB in end game content. If anything I want to see more unique boons, stances are a great one to try and standardise. Exactly, no idea why people would want this. I mean love the recent Chronomancer changes since now I can properly fill a Quickness or Alacrity slot. Maybe not in a raid but in most other content they do fine.

It is listed on Snowcrow/Metabattle so I guess it has some its uses. If I was to have a guess, it can get higher DPS in some situations since it doesn't rely on Sword and by extension Fencer's Finesse and Phantasmal Swordsmen. It will also have higher base Condition Duration so I guess its a cheaper to run since you wont need as much food/utility buffs. Best use case is Open World content.

This thread got a bit lost in replies. The answer is a mix, you definitely can do T4 fractals without a healer/support with skilled players but it becomes that much easier with them. The main reason you bring them no mater what anyone else says is to skip mechanics. 5 DPS or 3 DPS and 2 Supports wont make much difference in the over all damage but having permanent defensive boons and healing will speed up fights. Saying all this though having a Support/Healer who are not doing their job is a huge crutch so it can be a double edged sword.

An Quickness/Alacrity Soulbeast would be pretty OP and goes against ANet idea of only have supports provide one of the two boon. Honestly though I don't think you have played Soulbeast enough, Quickness is its bread and butter. I agree that dagger needs a slight buff but the dagger main/offhand combo was deadly on hybrid Soulbeast(post patch just mean axe outclasses it). Pair that with Essence of Speed and "Heal as One" and you have never ending quickness and any other boons people throw on you. I had situations where I had permanent Protection/Regeneration/Resolution from the odd guardian application in end game content.

This game has so many nuances with each class it would take a very long time of playing each one to truly know if this point holds true. I mean I play Power Chonomancer PVE not because it has the best damage or I can output boons but solely because I self buff Might and Quickness (which is hard to find in pugs) and also apply the hardiest to find Control Effect Taunt. I'm able to fight large numbers of enemies and keep them off me with Phantasmal Defender spam while CC bosses with the unique control effect. I mean hey it might not be ideal for me to play this but I feel like I'm contributing my unique aspect to a PVE fight.

Only Mirage uses staff all other other condition builds that use Chaos have other weapons so my point holds true. Even with Virtuoso the difference in DPS is 2k from Dueling to Chaos. You also get access to supportive traits with Chaos so it is arguably better in end game content like raids. I forgot about Illusionary Membrane, the other reason to run Chaos.

Honestly i used to think the same but the best way to view all of the Mesmer traitlines is the elite specialization makes up 80% of your damage. The Core especially the third traitline are just the flavor of your elite specialization. If you had a pick for pure Condition traits then go Method of Madness and Chaotic Interruption, but I normally do Bountiful Disillusionment purely for the amount of self stability to can pump out. Not really for PVE most condition builds for Mesmer use Chaos traitline purely for the condition damage bonus. https://snowcrows.com/builds/mesmer/mirage/condition-alacrity-mirage (this is primary use case)

I feel like all the Gw2 forum complaints are based on this dynamic. For example I'm a Mesmer main and Support Chronomancer is not as good as HB support so I can either complain how bad Chronomancer or I can just play HB (which isn't going to happen). This extends to almost all classes, but I feel the true solution to this problem is to not compare them so much. I love Mesmer and if I have to play a worse HB to be a Support Mesmer, I would choose that any day over asking every class to match its standard.

Looks good but you probably don't need the Mantra heal if you use that many Wells. If you ran a Heal Quickness Chronomancer then run Mantras instead of Wells. Both work great by the way, and use same gear.

Meh well I'm not doing any posts like this anytime soon. This forum is pretty dead anyway, more dead than when I left.

Why would you even want to auto attack the unleashed skills, you only unleash pets for a tiny duration to spam those skills and then switch back. Also the only normal pet skill worth assigning as an auto attack is F1 (sometimes F2) otherwise everything else is great now that you can cast it when ever. I only use Untamed in WvW, with either the duel Hammer or Longbow. It is amazingly tanking as appose the Soulbeast which dies very quickly.

Nothing ANet does will satisfy Ranger players. I mean current they hold some of the top DPS/Support spots so I don't know what more people can ask for. If they nerf Soulbeast then people can complain but currently Ranger is tied with Engineer as the best ranged DPS in most PvP game modes.

Something will always be on top, I'm sure they see a much bigger picture than we do. I mean the changes made to spirits and banners where inline with there play time, outside raids running them made 0 sense when Quickness and Alacrity existed.

Ahh here come the detractors and the whole reason I left this forum for a few months. Honestly I will only stick around if people are fair (don't name call me) getting attention will probably make me leave again. I mean I called the OPness of Virtuoso well before it was a meta dps and I got so much kitten for it.

Untamed is in a weird spot arguable its a normal DPS with a brawling mechanic. Fervent Force triggers which honestly where in PvE or PvP it this going to be reliable enough to get the 42k DPS. Over all Untamed is a worse Soulbeast in terms of damage but from someone who mains both Ranger and Mesmer, Soulbeast is a nightmare to keep alive. I might not do as much damage on Untamed but at least i can run away with super speed or tank it with barrier.

Even if you don't need precision food anymore the requirements for a high DPS Virtuoso is still high. Not to mention you need to line up most enemies to get max dps which normally leaves you outside the Zerg's boons.

Yeah that is my theory too, maybe all the HB decided to try Chrono for a bit

I barely see any Firebrands at the moment, some Mechanist but it hard to tell if they are Alacrity.

No I just observed there are a lot of Mesmers running around. I don't know exactly what they run I'm only speculating.